Hopefully not an idiot - I saw the movie as a blank slate twenty years ago - loved it - and my main takeaway was, they felt compelled to create their own country within ours because they felt they could not get justice nor thrive without it.
I think it’s a perfectly reasonable take.
It did not make me love the mafia, but, I felt my understanding was expanded. It’s a good motivation for equality and justice for all.
The other story is that the Government made the choice to let the Mob run the unions, to avoid the Communists controlling them.
it was purely a selfish pursuit for them to gain lots of tax free money and live like kings....
OTOH....consider our present American condition...
nobody gets rich alone...you know somebody, you do favors for some govt official, you get cozy with the cops, you do underhanded accounting ...
your kid gets arrested for murder and IF you know the right people, he'll be free...
that is the sad reality....connections and quid pro quo...
so the reality is that the Mafia just played the game...